The Missing at the Well
A distraught town elder begs the party to find three missing locals who disappeared after drawing water from the old well.
Campaign Overview
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The Whispering Cistern
A quiet border town has begun to change. Water tastes metallic, livestock grow listless, and a few villagers have vanished after hearing voices in the well. The characters are drawn into a compact mystery of old tunnels, submerged chambers, and a creeping intelligence that speaks through reflection and rain. Act I focuses on the town’s unease, the first descent below street level, and the discovery that the source of the trouble is far more ancient than it first appears.
Player Handout
Welcome to the Whispering Cistern
You arrive in a small, damp town where the wells have gone strange and people speak in hushed voices about hearing whispers in the water. A few locals have vanished. The remaining townsfolk are frightened, suspicious, and desperate for help.
Tone: eerie, mysterious, and claustrophobic.
Starting Hook: Someone has asked you to look into the missing villagers and the unsettling changes around the wells. The answers seem to lie beneath the town, in places no one has entered for years.
Free Act I Preview
The Whispering Cistern
Act I introduces the town, the missing persons mystery, and the hidden cistern network beneath the old wells. The tone should be tense and eerie rather than overtly horrific. The party investigates rumors, finds the first cult clues, and reaches the submerged antechamber where the central villain’s influence begins to show. End Act I once the characters learn the threat is intelligent, organized, and tied to something deep in the water below.
Adventure Hooks
Strange Water, Stranger Voices
A temple or roadside healer hires the party to investigate contaminated water and a recurring whisper heard by anyone who drinks it.
Act Structure
Act I: Whispers in the Well
Recommended level: 1-2The party investigates missing villagers and a poisoned well, uncovers signs of a hidden cult in the old cistern, and confronts the first agents of the Drowned Speaker. Act I should feel investigative at first, then turn tense and subterranean as the truth emerges. The goal is to reveal the villain’s network and establish the larger threat below town without resolving it yet.
Objectives
- Investigate the town’s missing persons reports
- Locate the old cistern entrance beneath the well
- Disrupt the cult’s first listening rites
- Recover clues pointing to the Drowned Speaker
The Town on Edge
People lower their voices when the well is mentioned. A bucket sits beside it, wet with fresh water, but no one seems willing to draw it up.
Open with social unease and short rumors. Let the party gather simple evidence: strange taste in water, missing villagers, and a maintenance ledger with recent access. The goal is to direct them toward the well and pump house.
Checks
- Insight DC 10: locals are hiding fear, not hostility.
- Investigation DC 12: find evidence of tampering near the well.
- Persuasion DC 11: learn where the last missing villager was seen.
Clues
- The old pump house was accessed recently.
- Several townsfolk heard whispers in rain barrels and wells.
- A maintenance symbol matches markings deeper below.
Transitions
- The clues point to the abandoned pump house.
- A witness mentions wet footsteps leading away from the well.
The Abandoned Pump House
Rotten timbers sag over a stone stairway descending into darkness. The air below smells of cold water, rust, and something faintly sweet.
This is the first exploration beat. Use trapped debris, hidden tools, and a few aggressive scouts to create tension. The stairway leads into the cistern tunnels and provides the party with their first real sense of underground scale.
Checks
- Perception DC 12: spot fresh muddy prints.
- Thieves' Tools or Dexterity DC 12: open a rusted service hatch.
- Survival DC 11: track the prints into the tunnel.
Clues
- The hatch was opened from below, not above.
- The tunnel marks indicate organized movement, not random wandering.
- A torn scrap of prayer paper implies ritual activity.
Transitions
- The tunnel leads to the Waterlogged Ambush encounter.
- A hidden niche contains a charm that reacts to nearby water.
The Submerged Antechamber
The chamber opens in a wide arc around a black pool. On the far wall, someone has painted a spiral eye in wet mineral paste.
This scene should reveal the cult’s intent. The party can interrupt a ritual, discover captives or evidence of them, and realize the villain is not merely local trouble. End on a note of dread and momentum, pushing them toward the floodgate and the larger threat beyond Act I.
Checks
- Arcana or Religion DC 12: identify the chamber as a listening rite.
- Perception DC 13: hear voices that vanish when the water stills.
- Investigation DC 13: find a ledger naming shipments and coded meetings.
Clues
- The villain is called the Drowned Speaker by its followers.
- The cult is preparing to open a deeper sealed passage.
- Someone in town is supplying food, tools, or information.
Transitions
- Triggers the Whispering Chamber or Floodgate Breakpoint encounter.
- Sets up Act II by revealing a deeper seal below the cistern.
Milestone: The party reaches level 2 when they discover the hidden cistern network and identify the Drowned Speaker as the organizer behind the disappearances.
Villain Character Sheets
The Drowned Speaker
Completed
The Drowned Speaker is the quiet center of the Whispering Cistern’s corruption, a patient manipulator who understands that fear works best …
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The Drowned Speaker Character Sheet
Motivation
The Drowned Speaker believes the town is ripe for surrender to an ancient intelligence beneath the water. It seeks to soften resistance through fear, whispers, and disappearances until the settlement willingly opens what should remain sealed.
Personality
Soft-spoken, patient, and unsettlingly attentive. It never rushes, speaks as if listening to a second conversation, and treats ordinary people as already half-converted.
Resources
- A small cult cell beneath town
- Rats, stirges, and tunnel scouts
- Secret access to the old cistern network
- Stolen records of well maintenance and local shipments
Battle Plan
The Drowned Speaker avoids direct combat in Act I. It uses intermediaries, retreats behind floodgates, and lets minions stall intruders. If cornered, it attempts to escape through water routes while leaving a final message or clue behind.
Defeat or Redemption
If exposed early, the Drowned Speaker can flee, be captured, or be turned against the deeper entity it serves by evidence of betrayal. Its defeat ends the local cult operation, but not the source beneath the cistern.
Running Notes
Recommended party: 3-5 players
Session Zero
Use a concise safety check-in before play. Emphasize eerie mystery, confined spaces, and waterlogged danger rather than graphic horror. Ask for player boundaries around captivity, body horror, and hopelessness. Establish that the town is suspicious but not universally hostile, and that investigation should be rewarded with clear clues. Keep secrets mild and avoid surprise betrayal among the player characters.
Scaling Guidance
For a weaker party, reduce enemy counts by 1 in each encounter and replace the Cult Fanatic with a Cultist. For a stronger party, add one minion to each combat and give the villain one extra escape route or environmental effect. Keep Act I lethal only if the players ignore obvious warnings or split up in the tunnels.
DM Advice
Start with two or three immediate rumors, then give the party a visible reason to go below the well within the first hour. Let clues overlap so the mystery never stalls. Use sound, dripping water, and partial reflections to make the cistern feel alive. The villain should be felt before it is seen, and its first on-screen appearance should be brief, controlled, and unnerving.
Secrets & Clues
- The whispers are carried through water channels, not magic alone.
- The cult uses town maintenance routes to move unseen.
- The central villain is testing whether the town can be frightened into opening the deeper seal.
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Encounters
Waterlogged Ambush
Suggested Level: 1-2
Mud-slick tunnel raiders strike from behind broken masonry and knee-deep water, trying to knock intruders prone before escaping into side passages.
Creatures
Terrain Features
- Knee-deep water counts as difficult terrain
- Broken stone provides half cover
- Narrow ledges along the tunnel edges
Treasure
A pouch with 12 gp and a water-stained map scrap.
DM Notes
Reduce to 3 Goblin for a weaker party. Add one Goblin for a larger or more experienced group.
The Whispering Chamber
Encounter Builder
Moderate
Suggested Level: 1-2
The party enters a circular room where voices seem to come from the water itself while a guardian and its thralls defend ritual markings on the floor.
Creatures
Terrain Features
- Shallow reflective pool in the center
- Slick stone floor with chances to fall prone
- Ritual circle grants cover to creatures standing behind it
Treasure
A ritual note, 1 potion of healing, and a carved bone charm.
DM Notes
Use the cultist as a fanatical but fragile organizer. The stirges harass backliners and can flee if bloodied.
Floodgate Breakpoint
Encounter Builder
High
Suggested Level: 2
A final struggle erupts as a flooded gate is forced open, releasing danger from the next chamber while defenders attempt to delay the party.
Creatures
Terrain Features
- Rising water round by round
- A heavy floodgate that can be jammed or opened
- Elevated catwalk with poor footing
Treasure
The villain’s first ledger, a set of tunnel keys, and a silvered medallion.
DM Notes
If the party is struggling, replace the Cult Fanatic with a Cultist and one Skeleton. If they are breezing through, add one additional Skeleton.
Magic Items
Charm of Still Waters
Completed
Charm of Still Waters
Common
A smooth blue stone that cools in the palm. While held, it grants advantage on one check made to notice hidden movement or disturbances in water each day.
Location
Act I, submerged ritual room
Attunement
False
Pump-Runner Boots
Completed
Pump-Runner Boots
Uncommon
These worn leather boots ignore minor slickness. While worn, the wearer has advantage on checks to avoid falling prone on wet or uneven stone.
Location
Act I, old pump house cache
Attunement
False
Lantern of Quiet Ripples
Completed
Lantern of Quiet Ripples
Uncommon
A hooded lantern whose light reveals faint motion in water, even when creatures are hidden beneath the surface. It sheds dim blue light only.
Location
Act I, floodgate breakpoint
Attunement
True; requires attunement by a creature proficient in Arcana or Religion
Player Characters
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